The prestigious annual Rose D'Or Awards (now in their 55th year) honour the very best of international radio, TV and online entertainment programmes, and the awards ceremony took place last night (Tuesday, September 13th 2016). Over 400 programmes from more than 130 broadcasters and production companies in 33 different countries were submitted for this year’s Rose d’Or awards. For the first time, a new competition category, 'Radio Event Of The Year' was created. We entered European Dawn Chorus in this category, and we're absolutely delighted to let you know that ... drumroll... WE WON!!! We're absolutely thrilled to pieces, and a massive thanks to all our EBU and BirdLife International partners, we couldn't have done it without you! Click here to read more about the 2016 Rose D'Or awards (in which legendary funnyman John Cleese picked up the Lifetime Achievement award), and click here to relive - and re-listen to - all the beautiful Dawn Chorus birdsong from right across Europe.

***STOP PRESS*** Dawn Chorus Picks Up Another Award!

We're thrilled to let you know that on Friday, October 7th, the Dawn Chorus won the Innovation Award at the PPI Radio Awards in Kilkenny!

On Mooney today...

Following the introduction of new bankruptcy legislation, Brenda Donohue reports from the New Beginning Roadshow in Athlone. Philip Boucher Hayes puts Killorglin on the map as the least wasteful town in the country. After a new breakthrough in the development of the male contraceptive pill, we ask would YOU trust a man to take it? And three listeners attempt to beat the clock, and each other, to win a two-night New Year break at the INEC in Killarney with tickets to their New Year's Eve concert feat. Sharon Shannon, Mundy & Shane McGowan!

Mooney's Honeymooners, with the Sunday World!

***THIS COMPETITION HAS NOW CLOSED***

Mooney has teamed up with the Sunday World (www.sundayworld.com) to give one very special couple a second honeymoon! We looked for Ireland's favourite couple - and that couple could win a dream trip to San Francisco, worth a whopping €10,000!!!

The winning couple will be revealed in the Sunday World on December 22nd, and on Mooney on Christmas Day. Good luck to everybody who entered!

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Mooney Tunes 9

The ninth concert in our hugely popular series of Mooney Tunes will be a variety Christmas concert with various singers and the RTÉ Concert Orchestra. Listeners requests will be read out and their songs will be played. There will be love songs, songs you will sing along to, beautiful classical music and lots of Christmassy tunes to get you in the festive mood a week before Christmas!

The Mooney Tunes concerts have been extremely successful, and tickets often sell-out within hours of going on sale.

The benefit of buying the tickets in person at the theatre box office is that there is no service charge to pay. Tickets are priced from €14.50 and go up to €20, €28, €34 and €39.50, depending on where you are sitting.

Tickets are also on sale online from Ticketmaster.ie, Ticketmaster outlets and from the Ticketmaster phonelines:

Tickets bought from Ticketmaster.ie online or on the phone are subject to a 12.5% service charge so, for example, that would make the €14.50 ticket, the cheapest ticket, €16.60. If you buy your tickets in person from a Ticketmaster outlet there will be a €2.50 flat fee service charge, and there is no service charge whatsoever if you buy them in person at the box office here at the Bord Gais Energy Theatre.

But whichever way you choose to get your tickets for Mooney Tunes 9, we suggest that you do it as soon as possible after 3pm, when they go on sale! It's the perfect pre-Christmas concert - but tickets will go early, so get yours as soon as you can to avoid disappointment! For more information about the concert, visit www.bordgaisenergytheatre.ie/index.php/artist/mooney-tunes.

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Mooney's Thursday Quiz

It’s Mooney, it’s Thursday, so it's time for our Mooney’s Thursday Quiz! And we have a terrific prize up for grabs today: we’re going to sort out your New Years Eve!

The INEC in Killarney have offered us a two-night stay for two people sharing one room in the Gleneagle Hotel in Killarney for December 30th and 31st - including breakfast on both mornings - AND two tickets to their New Years Eve concert featuring Sharon Shannon, Mundy and Shane McGowan!

Runners-up will get a copy of the Irish Times Book Of The Year 2013 by Peter Murtagh and everyone who takes part in the quiz will get a Mooney Pride watch...

Food Waste

We’ve discussed the issue of food waste on Mooney from time to time, and the statistic that always jumps out is just how much food we throw away. According to the people who know these things, one third of all the food we buy in the shops is thrown in the bin. Think about that. One in every three items we buy is wasted. That's about €700 worth of food per household, per year.

Our colleague from Drivetime, Philip Boucher Hayes, spent some time over the summer experimenting with the good people of Killorglin in Co. Kerry. With the help of a team of food waste experts, a selection of householders, restaurants, supermarkets and other businesses tried to reduce the amount they throw out...

The results of this "grand experiment" can be seen in Waste Watchers on RTÉ One this coming Sunday, at 6.30pm...

The Male Contraceptive Pill

A recent scientific breakthrough could make the male contraceptive pill a reality. A team from Monash University in Australia have published their findings on a new technique, that works like a temporary vasectomy which stops sperm from leaving the body. Would women trust men to take the tablets? Brenda Donohue went out and about to find out...

New Beginning

Last Tuesday, the new bankruptcy rules came into force, which now means that you are automatically discharged from bankruptcy with all your debts written off within a maximum of three years.

So with so many people struggling to repay mortgages on their homes, on buy-to-let properties, and all sorts of other debts, New Beginning embarked on a nationwide road show to explain to people the options that are available to them.

New Beginning is an organisation which works with people faced with unmanageable debts. Last night, the road show was in the Radisson Blu Hotel in Athlone and Brenda Donohue went along to find out more...

Hedgerows: It is an offence to 'cut, grub, burn or otherwise destroy hedgerows on uncultivated land during the nesting season from 1 March to 31 August, subject to certain exceptions'. For more information, click here.

UPDATE: February 29th 2016 - Press Release From BirdWatch Ireland:

Putting the record straight: Dates for burning and hedge-cutting have NOT changed

BirdWatch Ireland, Ireland’s largest conservation charity, is very concerned about misinformation that is currently circulating regarding the dates within which the burning of vegetation and cutting of hedges is permitted. It would like to remind landowners that all burning and cutting must cease on 29th February this year and that burning and cutting remains prohibited from 1st March to 31st August.

Despite attempts by the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Heather Humphreys T.D., to change the laws regulating these dates by introducing the Heritage Bill 2016 earlier this year, it is important to note that the proposed date changes were ultimately NOT made. This is because the bill failed to pass through both houses of the Oireachtas before the recent dissolution of the Dáil in advance of the general election.

The laws in place governing the dates for hedge-cutting and upland burning therefore remain unchanged. The period within which cutting and burning is prohibited are set down in Section 40 of the Wildlife Act 1976 (as amended in 2000), which states that:

(a) It shall be an offence for a person to cut, grub, burn or otherwise destroy, during the period beginning on the 1st day of March and ending on the 31st day of August in any year, any vegetation growing on any land not then cultivated.
(b) It shall be an offence for a person to cut, grub, burn or otherwise destroy any vegetation growing in any hedge or ditch during the period mentioned in paragraph (a) of this subsection (above).

The existing law provides exemptions for road safety and other circumstances and should be read carefully to ensure compliance.

Section 40 of the Wildlife Act exists to protect nesting birds. Many of our upland bird species are in decline and are in danger of extinction in Ireland; amongst them is the Curlew, which has declined by 80%. Many birds which nest in hedgerows into August are also in serious decline, including the endangered Yellowhammer. The changes to the cutting and burning dates which had been proposed in the now-defunct Heritage Bill 2016 would have caused serious impacts to these birds. A petition launched by BirdWatch Ireland in conjunction with several other national conservation organisations to stop these changes attracted more than 16,200 signatures and rising.

BirdWatch Ireland would also like to advise members of the public that if they see hedges being cut or fires in the uplands on or after 1st March, such activity could be illegal. In such cases, we would encourage people to contact the National Parks and Wildlife Service (www.npws.ie) to report such activity.

BirdWatch Ireland warmly welcomes the demise of the Heritage Bill 2016 and sincerely hopes that any future administration will consider the importance of Ireland’s natural heritage and will not attempt to reintroduce such a flawed and damaging piece of legislation.

RTÉ.ie is the website of Raidió Teilifís Éireann, Ireland's National Public Service Broadcaster.RTÉ is not responsible for the content of external internet sites. Images courtesy of Inpho.ie and Getty Images.